Generally, a decorative plant is first planted in a small pot, and after outgrowing the first pot, is transplanted to a larger pot. During its life a plant may undergo numerous transplanting as it grows in size. Plant material may also be transplanted to place it into a more attractive pot or to make an attractive assembly or reassembly of plant material.
To remove plant material from a small pot, the pot may be inverted and the outer surface of the pot shaken or tapped until the plant material and surrounding soil fall from the inverted pot. If, however, the plant material has out grown a container which is too large to be inverted, removal of the plant material may require either breaking the container or using a shovel, or other tool, to dig the root structure from the soil in which it is embedded. Regardless of the method used, removing the plant material from one pot to transplant it into a larger pot generally results in loss of soil surrounding the roots and damage to the plant.
It would, therefore, be desirable to provide a method and apparatus for transplanting plant material while retaining in place the existing soil and root structure of the plant.